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When I told my next door neighbor in May of 2008 that I was going to sell the house along with all of my personal possessions and move to Chiclayo Peru with my Peruvian wife, his response was..” That’s a path not many men walk.” I had that impression as well, but have since learned that many men and women have walked and continue to walk that path. There is a large expatriate community in Lima and a significant number of gringos scattered about the remainder of the country from the larger coastal cities to the smallest jungle villages. Many of them have personal blogs in which they offer travel advice, news, and a wealth of other information along with their individual experiences. The purpose of this blog is not so far reaching. My intent is simply to record my experiences and observations for family, friends and anyone else who may be interested, but mostly for myself. Peru is to me a musical, magical land and I’ve found that writing about it helps me to preserve the beauty I experience as I explore this enchanting country. Anyway, thanks for visiting my site. Feel free to come back again, and leave a comment if you’d care to or send an email to me at kaetan1@gmail.com.

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Sunday, September 3, 2017

The villagers of Tepo need to forget

In the past in the village of Tepo the primary school I.E.P.N 11238 was a normal school with twenty-some
students between the ages of six to eleven, two teachers and the director. The
death of a nine-year old girl six years ago at the school altered that
situation to the present day. Neither the director nor the parents would talk
about the details of the circumstances, though Magali did learn that an
investigation resulted in clearing the staff of any negligence. Blameless or
not, the community held the school and staff accountable for the incident.
Parents stopped sending their kids to the school. When enrolment dropped to
only a handful, Mochumi authorities removed the two teachers, but retained
(probably a mistake) the director as the only teacher. Though the death
occurred six years ago the stigma remains. At present the primary has nine
students, though there are many more students in Tepo eligible to attend. The
school looks and feels to be in a state of limbo; it’s continued existence to
on a day-to-day basis.

The parent’s association is not supporting the primary
school and the appearance of the classroom shows it. The government is
providing only minimal support, citing declining enrolment as the reason.
Promised repairs for the recent flood damaged walls are probably in the distant
future if at all.

The pronoei Mi Mundo Magico (My Magic World) is inside the
primary school, using a classroom no longer needed. Curiously parents seem to
have no reservations about having their kids attend class at the site of that
girl’s death six years ago, which seems to indicate it is the director/teacher
they are avoiding.

In contrast to the primary classroom, the pronoei is well
maintained. Malena Seclen has been there since 2013 and appears to have a good
repour with the parent’s association. She has an enrolment of twenty kids ages
three to five. She would like to replace the plastic tables, some of which are
broken, with five wood tables. She has chairs from the primary school. She has
also asked for a whiteboard and storage shelf.

The pronoei in Tepo would normally not meet our criteria for
donation, however here we feel is a condition that needs to be addressed and
possibly Promesa Peru could help. We’d like to donate the items asked for to
the pronoei, and provide teaching aids to the primary school. It is our hope
that by demonstrating our interest in the primary school, the parents may
soften their view and send their kids to I.E.P.N 11238 when they finish at the
pronoei.

It’s not a good situation to have classrooms empty when
they can be cleaned up for little cost, nor to have an experienced
director/teacher being limited to a token number of students. There would be so
many advantages to the kids and community to have I.E.P.N 11238 up and running again but for that to happen the villagers need to
forget what happened…or what they think
happened six years ago.

The cost for pronoei items would be:

Five tables - $139

One whiteboard – 53

Whiteboard erasers and markers – 8

Storage shelf – 27

Transportation – 47

Total - $274.00

We are not sure what
would be appropriate to donate to I.E.P.N 11238 at this moment but would limit
the cost to $100. We need $374 to accomplish this project. If you agree with
our objective and would like to contribute please visit the Promesa
Peru webpage. Thank you.